Giving away a prize sounds like a quick and easy way to attract new people to your social media sites, and an even better way to keep the attention of the fans you already have. Right? Sort of. Social media promotions are a good idea some of the time, but there are five main things you need to consider before launching a giveaway (or sweepstakes, or contest) of your own: 1. Know what you’re trying to accomplish This should sound pretty obvious, but don’t have a contest or giveaway just to have one. You need to have a goal. Are you trying to develop brand loyalty among your fans and…

Hey guys, what’s a Klout score? Klout measures your online influence on a scale from 1 to 100. The average Klout score hovers somewhere around 20. Justin Bieber has a perfect Klout score of 100. Klout itself has a Klout score in the 80s, meaning the site is apparently less influential than a 17-year-old pop star (but then again, I guess we’re all at least slightly less influential than The Bieber). What do you mean by online influence? Well. You can link various social sites to Klout, but it only measures your activity and friends/followers on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. Additionally, Klout measures: 1. True reach: The number…

If you have more than one business, do you need Twitter accounts to match? Our marketing expert Shama Kabani has the answer. Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs. But it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com, or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video. Dear Shama, I’m a serial entrepreneur. I have businesses and websites in a variety of areas that are nonrelated (i.e., gravestones, retirement planning and asset…

Does your nonprofit need help boosting its social-media presence? Our resident marketing expert Shama Kabani has some advice. Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs. But it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com, or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video. Dear Shama, My organization is a nonprofit, and we are in the midst of fundraising season. We desperately need help with marketing and raising money. We have a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter,…

The holiday season is all about friends and family connecting and reconnecting with one another. As a brand on social media, you want – even need – to be a part of people’s holiday traditions and memories. We’ve compiled some tips to help effectively transition your company’s year-round message to one of good tidings, sugarplums, mistletoe, and…you get the picture. Have a contest or giveaway Photo contests are easy for participants and allow for more interaction with your brand than simply liking your Facebook page or filling out a form for entry. A fun, creative example of a holiday photo contest is last year’s 12 Days of LUV Twitter campaign…

Why should you apply SEO to Google+? Google tends to rank its own properties (YouTube, Google Places, etc) higher in search results than all the other websites on the internet. Since the introduction of Google+, Google has been learning toward offering Google+ pages and posts high in the search results – often on the first page. It makes sense to place some optimized links and keywords on your page or profile to improve your search engine rankings on Google. But how? SEO for your Google+ profile This is your SEO headline and meta description. The title is your name, which is already optimized since Google makes you use your real…

Although you’ve probably heard a lot about the benefits of Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and potentially even Google+ to your marketing efforts, they’re not the only sites and options out there. When it comes to online marketing, there are many other sites that could be worth exploring. Here are a few that we think could be potentially valuable. 1. Tumblr Tumblr is a quick and easy to set up blogging platform. An upside of Tumblr is that you can post content on it more frequently than you can on Facebook. The downside of Tumblr is that you can’t host your blog, and Tumblr’s servers aren’t the most reliable. When they go…

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived: Google+ finally launched brand pages. Since these pages are so new, we thought we’d compile a list of five major points you should know about them. 1. Pages have direct connect with Google search This is the feature that really sets Google+ pages apart from Facebook pages: the search integration. A major difficulty with using Facebook for social media marketing is that people aren’t there to buy things. An advantage of a Google+ page is its integration with Google’s web search function, and the ability to “direct connect”. What does that mean? It means if a consumer wants to find…

If you have a physical location: 1. Claim your venue. Even if you’re not actively participating in Foursquare as a form of social media marketing yet, chances are users are already checking in to your business. If your business isn’t already there, that’s actually kind of a bad sign – any user can create a new venue, so why hasn’t somebody created yours yet? It’s not the end of the world, though, because it also means you can put yourself on Foursquare. There are varying instructions if you’re a chain with 10+ (or 100+) locations. In any case, Foursquare will verify your ownership by phone or mail and then…well, what…

Gmail or AOL emails are easy to use, but should you use them for business? Our marketing expert Shama Kabani has the answer. Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs. But it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video. Dear Shama, I am a consultant and love using an AOL email address. I’ve had this for a very long time. It is easy…